Essay On Color In The Great Gatsby

Throughout The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald reveals more and more rumors about Gatsby and what he has done. However, this all just speculation, as nobody knows the real truth behind Gatsby. Therefore, Gatsby is best represented by the color black. Grok describes black as “the color of mystery, of things not yet revealed.” There is definitely a mystery surrounding Gatsby regarding his past.. His party-goers tend to be the ones that concoct and spread these rumors: “‘he killed a man once’… ‘it’s more that he was a German spy during the war’” (44). Gatsby is generally a reclusive character; he tends not to tell others much about his personal life. The party-goers (generally rich) speculate about how he has the money entertain all of these

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel, The Great Gatsby, exposes the corruption and greed of the Roaring Twenties. Fitzgerald is able to captivate readers' attentions through his employment of color symbolism. Fitzgerald portrays important messages in the novel by his symbolic use of colors. Colors play an important role in Fitzgerald’s descriptions of the lives of Jay Gatsby, Nick Carraway and many of the other characters in the novel. Fitzgerald uses the colors white, yellow, and green to express certain sentiments to the reader, commenting what is going on in the story. Fitzgerald uses the color white to symbolize purity and innocence, while yellow is used to symbolize moral decay, and death. Green is used to represent hope and

Color is an extremely important detail when it comes to life. Without color, life would be dull and not full of aesthetics. Many things in life have a color connotation. This means that the word “apple” often reminds people of the color red, or the word “snow” often reminds people of the color white. When people think of the color green, it may remind them of the word “money” or “nature”, but the perception of the color green changes within different culture. For instance, in Egypt, green represents hope and spring. However, in the United States it represents money and jealousy. When thinking of Jay Gatsby from The Great Gatsby, the color I associate with him is green. There are many reasons why I connect Gatsby with the color green.

Individuals perpetuate false personas to such an extent that they are convinced into a state of false consciousness of reaching the American dream, ultimately, this facade leads them to their downfall, exposing repressed reality from idealistic lies. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald utilizes symbols to describe the hollow nature of each character’s deceitful persona, which comes to show the ultimate theme of downfall through the individual’s perception of the American dream. The use of gold as a mask for the colour yellow represents authentic wealth versus fake wealth, further developed though Jay Gatsby’s pursuance of the American dream. The colour white known for is purity and simplicity is denoted by Daisy

Colors have a large impact on society. They have the ability to affect people’s moods, appetites, and behaviors. Colors also have the ability to act as symbols. For example, the color white often acts as a symbol of innocence, and the color yellow often represents happiness. Throughout the book The Great Gatsby, multiple colors symbolize different aspects of Jay Gatsby’s life.

Crime, romance, tragedy. These qualities put together have the ability to make a fascinating book, but when taking a close look, one can find that there is more to it than that. In The Great Gatsby, colors and their connotations add another level of understanding to the book by symbolizing different social classes while creating imagery and adding to the reader's understanding of a dream. Most every color can be categorized through its connotations to the social classes they represent, mainly the old rich, new rich, and lower class. Everyday objects can all hold a deeper meaning when looking at something as simple as the color.

White is one of the clearest examples of deceiver in the novel because of its role in covering up and blurring the truth. Tom also displays the color white, not through clothes, but through his behavior. Tom is a raging racists clearly shown when he says, “if we don’t look out for the white races we will be utterly submerged”(P.13). Tom associates the color white with superiority and dominance not only in regards to race, but also in regards to money. His pride and privileged as a rich white man blinds him from reality and progression in America. He does not accept the possibility for anyone other than people like him to be successful and dominant in America.

Gatsby’s world was filled with the yellow of corruption. He drove a yellow Rolls-Royce, the car that caused the death of Myrtle Wilson. At his lavish parties on West Egg Island, yellow cocktail music played as hordes of guests, including two girls in twin yellow dresses took part in illegal drinking and promiscuity. Jay Gatsby had mob ties in the city of Chicago, and when Nick returned to the Midwest, the sight of the murky yellow cars of Chicago rooted itself in his memory. Gatsby was a man who knew what he wanted and did not care to do whatever it took to acquire it. He would resort to terrible activities such as bootlegging and lies. He did anything to get the wealth that he thought would win over Daisy Buchanan. Fittingly, the last time Gatsby was seen alive, he "disappeared among the yellowing trees (167)."

“The biggest disease known to mankind is loneliness.” (Author unknown). This quote describes darkness in one’s life when one tries everything in his power to be with someone and it does not work. This is the case in the novel The Great Gatsby when the main character Gatsby falls in love with Daisy, yet she is taken and unavailable but he continues to chase her and only ends up short. In The Great Gatsby, the author F. Scott Fitzgerald, uses literary elements in the novel is to create the story.

Throughout the novel, it can be seen that the most common color accompanying with Gatsby is yellow. With this color, the author skillfully implies what kind of outer self Gatsby intends to show before others. Yellow is the color of gold, which symbolizes money, materialism and high social position. First, yellow stands out as the color that represents new money and wealth acquired. According to Fitzgerald, “On week−ends his Rolls−Royce became an omnibus, bearing parties to and from the city between nine in the morning and long past midnight, while his station wagon scampered like a brisk yellow bug to meet all trains….The lights grow brighter as the earth lurches away from the sun, and now the orchestra is playing yellow cocktail music, and the opera of voices pitches a key higher” (Chapter 3, Page 21). Fitzgerald uses gold, a vivid representation of yellow to symbolize the wealth gained by Gatsby and the immense desire for him to get even more and to show it off to the entire society. In the light of the following events, it is easy to see how Gatsby is blinded by his love for Daisy and therefore money. This evidence shows that he buys a large yellow Rolls Royce to show off his new money. The band at his party plays “yellow cocktail music” to show his fulsome way of living and life. Gatsby chooses the yellow color to decorate himself and his house to show that he has been one member of their class. As Gatsby thinks that Daisy has never loved anyone else any more except

     F. Scott Fitzgerald, author of The Great Gatsby, uses symbolism throughout the novel to create the characters and events of the post World War I period. Colors are one way symbolism was used to develop the characters’ personalities and set up events. This is shown by colors like the green at the end of Daisy Buchannan’s dock, the color of Jay Gatsby’s car and how Myrtle and Jordan surrounded themselves by white. Other symbolisms used to set up events are the difference in the people of the West Egg and East Egg and the sign in the “valley of ashes”.

Another interesting detail is Gatsby’s car is yellow instead of the standardized black of the era stresses the thought that he is engrossed with the obsession of displaying his material wealth to get the love of Daisy. The Death car is yellow, and in the novel yellow symbolizes money and corruption in the novel. The creamy color of Gatsby’s car also symbolizes decay of corruption; therefore Gatsby’s car is like a bulging piece of fruit that is overripe and has started to rot.

The colors throughout The Great Gatsby were used as a way to thoroughly paint a picture in the reader's mind. The author F. Scott Fitzgerald uses colors such as grey, green, white, gold, red, yellow, and blue. He uses colors such as an advantage to make the reader have a better description whilst they read.

Thesis: The symbolic meaning of the colors: green, red, white and yellow, in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, serve to reveal the core issues that Gatsby, Daisy, and Tom have.

Colour plays a vital part in The Great Gatsby as it helps to illustrate many of the passages and helps the reader to create a clearer image of what is taking place. It also plays a significant role in the shaping up of the characters as colour is also associated with them.